What a fantastic result! I'm serious. I've never seen any other team dominate possession against the Arsenal like Sunderland did. By that reckoning alone, a draw is a fair result. Yes, perhaps the equaliser was difficult to swallow because it came 15 seconds from the end (read: they only had to hold on for another 15 seconds to walk away with all 3 points), but in the end, it was Arsenal hitting the all too familiar self destruct button.
My worry is what this will do to the team's confidence. Will they take it all in stride and emerge stronger or will they spectacularly collapse like we've seen them do every season for the past 5 years?
Have no doubt, Sunderland dominated this game. If they had a more potent attack and if Arsenal's 2 centre backs not had a good game, we'd have been well and truly fucked. Plus, being down to 10 men with over half an hour to play against a side that looked like they came for a proper scrap makes dropping 2 points acceptable.
Let's face it: The past 5 years without a shadow of a trophy leaves lots of doubts in the Arsenal players' heads and only serves to galvanise teams like Sunderland whom the Invincibles would have probably dispatched with ease within the first 30 minutes.
Teams know they can beat Arsenal these days and they're not wrong. It's not that others like manure or chelski can't be beat - it's the psychological advantage they have which comes from being consistent winners and this also serves to add doubt into the opposition's minds.
Sunderland had no doubt. They'd beaten us there last year. They knew they could do it again.
The Arsenal performance was lethargic at best. Always slower to the ball for long spells, unable to get out of their own half.
I have to say - credit to the 2 centre backs for doing a commendable job throughout. Sebastian Squillaci is the unspectacular yet effective CB which is great. We always need players like that. Laurent Kosciely puts himself about more. It worries me a bit because I think that is what is going to do him in against a striker like dogba. Anyway, he's been doing reasonably well so far so credit to him for that.
Sagna was his usual self. Gael Clichy on the other hand, I feel, hasn't proven he's better than Kieran Gibbs at the moment and really should be benched for a while. I'll get to his involvement in the equaliser later.
The game started off with Arsenal being pegged back for the most part. Then Cesc Fabregas popped up with a freak goal. He closed down anton ferdinand's clearance from the back and the rebound looped over the keeper and into the goal. Great stuff. But that also signaled his final contribution to the team as he limped off a little later with a hamstring problem. Rosicky came on in his place.
Andrei Arshavin still isn't performing and should be benched too. He doesn't have fight in his belly. A fair weather player. Sell him, I say.
Jack Wilshere did ok. He got caught in possession once and nearly screwed it up but fouled and picked up a card. Fair enough.
Alex Song wasn't at his best and eventually got sent off early in the 2nd half. Deserved if you ask me. That meant we were going to be stretched a bit.
AW took off arshavin for denilson who is NOT a replacement for Song. He never fights for the ball after losing it or after the attacker gets past him. Wrong attitude, kid.
Maroune Chamakh did all he could being up alone most of the time.
Tomas Rosicky then missed a penalty. I had a feeling he would. He's hardly been scoring goals of late and I'd say his confidence in front of goal is pretty much depleted. Samir Nasri should have taken the kick and sealed the win.
Instead, Sunderland ramped things up after that and we were made to pay in the last few seconds of the game.
Gael Clichy panicked and tried to scramble a clearance away only to hit Koscielny and darren bent was at hand to blast in the equaliser. Horrible defending from Clichy. He should have just cleared the ball into an area he could see clearly rather than towards his back where he can't see where it's going to go. Simply blast the ball into row Z and eat up more time. We would have won. Silly git. Bench him, I say. Send him to the reserves.
Anyway, I'm just trying to look at the positives from this match. The CBs did well and we didn't lose even when we weren't playing anywhere near our best. The possession stats say it all.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Arsenal 6 - 0 Braga.
A good victory, against much weaker opposition, but a victory nonetheless. Enjoy it but don't read too much into it.
Cesc Fabregas had a great game and capped it off with 2 goals - a penalty as well as a header (believe it or not!).
Samir Nasri played well too. He was simply all over the place - back defending and helping up front.
The rest of the team did ok.
Andrei Arshavin's finishing is still quite shit. Yes, he got one in this game, but look at the number of chances he wastes to get there. Reminds me of a certain cunt from togo.
The defensive partnership of Sebastian Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny seems solid enough to handle most attacks. It's just Gael Clichy I'm worried about. His defending was a bit suspect. I'd rather give Kieran Gibbs a run. He's hungrier for his chance.
Jack Wilshere has been starting but wasn't particularly spectacular in this game. He did the bare minimum and that's the least I could ask of him. The Arsenal academy kids should look at him and take note. Life isn't that easy at the top level compared to the reserves league.
Maroune Chamakh got on the score sheet too and it was his first non-header goal. Great to see. I love this guy. Always working hard.
Carlos Vela came on as a substitute and scored two.
Manuel Almunia didn't have much to do and for once the referee was kind to us.
That's about it. Nothing to gloat about.
Cesc Fabregas had a great game and capped it off with 2 goals - a penalty as well as a header (believe it or not!).
Samir Nasri played well too. He was simply all over the place - back defending and helping up front.
The rest of the team did ok.
Andrei Arshavin's finishing is still quite shit. Yes, he got one in this game, but look at the number of chances he wastes to get there. Reminds me of a certain cunt from togo.
The defensive partnership of Sebastian Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny seems solid enough to handle most attacks. It's just Gael Clichy I'm worried about. His defending was a bit suspect. I'd rather give Kieran Gibbs a run. He's hungrier for his chance.
Jack Wilshere has been starting but wasn't particularly spectacular in this game. He did the bare minimum and that's the least I could ask of him. The Arsenal academy kids should look at him and take note. Life isn't that easy at the top level compared to the reserves league.
Maroune Chamakh got on the score sheet too and it was his first non-header goal. Great to see. I love this guy. Always working hard.
Carlos Vela came on as a substitute and scored two.
Manuel Almunia didn't have much to do and for once the referee was kind to us.
That's about it. Nothing to gloat about.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Suck on that, kevin davies! Arsenal 4-1 Bolton.
Finally! Proper football. Those goddamn international breaks are a pain in the arse.
Wenger started off this match with a "weakened" side, perhaps enforced due to our usual recent glut of injuries. No Vermaelen was a telling change and I feared the new boy Squillaci wasn't ready yet for the big time with fellow new-comer Koscielny. It would be too soon to pair them in the middle of defence.
Luckily though, bolton are barely a footballing side and luckier still, this turned out to be the Cesc Fabregas show. What an inspiration. And the boy wasn't even at 100%. It's scary and scary but more on that later.
Firstly let's talk about what he DID do which is run the show in midfield and make 3 assists out of the 4 goals scored. He showed more hunger and determination to win than anyone else on the pitch in Red and White.
Andrei Arshavin was the biggest waster of them all....put through by Cesc on numerous occasions in one-on-one situations, he repeatedly fluffed his lines. That's the kind of thing that will destroy all the hard work, morale and untimately, the season. He's got to shape up or ship out. I'm all for selling him and using the money to buy another midfielder who actually gives a crap.
Jack Wilshere started and made a telling contribution when he crossed into the box for Cesc to knock down the pass for Laurent Koscielny to bundle across the line for Arsenal's first goal. Other than that, the young Englishman was mostly anonymous and went about doing his job without being outstanding. Not that it was a bad performance from him, but it wasn't the best we've seen him produce.
Tomas Rosicky did pretty well, also creating fantastic chances for Arshavin but the Russian kept getting caught offside, even if they were marginal calls.
bolton played a dangerously high defensive line against Arsenal and we could have done with Theo's pace, bursting through the middle from slightly deeper, but he's sadly out for a few more weeks after getting injured playing for england....all that just as he was showing great form with a bunch of goals.
Up front, Maroune Chamakh went about with his usual high work rate. I like this guy. He really works for the team. Although he hasn't scored many goals, his two, including the one he converted here from a Cesc cross, both came from headers. When was the last time we've seen that from someone in Red and White?
Alex Song chipped in, literally, with his own contribution up front. He received an Arshavin pass well and managed to dink one over the keeper in what looked a fantastic striker's goal. Besides that, he performed well as the shield in front of the back four.
As for the back four, eboue was back at his diving/play acting best going down several times. The less spoken about, the better.
Kieran Gibbs started at left back and put in a good show. He collected a yellow card for a slightly high tackle but I thought that was great. Something we've lacked in a while. Someone who's willing to go out there and put himself about - announce his presence a bit like that cunt kevin davies.
The little shite davies should have been sent off. He pulled a tackle from behind on Rosicky in the first half, and then, going unpunished, he continued his bullshit with a late one into Wilshere. The little shit. That earned him a yellow but he's never satisfied unless he's seriously hurt an Arsenal man. He proceeded to try and do just that in the second half with a heavy head butt into Koscielny that left the latter seeing stars. But credit to Koscielny as he picked himself up and went about doing his job reasonably well.
It was Koscielny who gifted bolton their equaliser in the first half with a weak defensive header. It looked like the team was about to crumble again as we've seen them do so spectacularly before against these types of opposition but thankfully it happened before half time so there was a chance for Wenger to talk to them and set them straight. Had that kind of goal gone in the second half with bolton pulling level, I'm sure the 3pts would've gone down the toilet as it seemed that only Cesc gave a fuck.
New boy Sebastien Squillaci went about his business with little incident which I consider a good thing. Nothing much else to say about that and neither is there much to say about Almunia's performance. Though he might have done a bit better for bolton's equaliser, I can't really blame him for it.
diaby came on for a bit, took a heavy challenge on his shin, and left. I'm not complaining too much though the tackle was typical of a fucked up side like bolton: Get the player first, ball doesn't matter. Of course the perpetrator never got punished for it. Wonderful refereeing considering the ref had only moments earlier sent off a bolton player for a tackle from behind on Chamakh which looked was less dangerous.
denilson came on to substitute the substitute diaby and put in his usual performance similarly to diaby - pass sideways or backwards and if passing forward, only pass to cesc. Perhaps in this case that wasn't too bad because the team was already leading but in the instance you're chasing a game, people like diaby and denilson only add negativity to Arsenal's game.
Carlos Vela came on as a sub and contributed his bit. During his cameo, he seemed to put in a high work rate which I always like to see. Then, after Arsenal had strung 24 passes together, Cesc looks up with the ball at his feet and sees Vela's run. As only he can, Cesc lobs the ball exquisitely over the bolton defence to Vela who manages to show Arshavin what to do during a one-on-one situation with the keeper. I expected the Mexican to chip it over the keeper like he normally does but this time he chose to slot the ball well into the bottom left of the goal. It has to be said too that the bolton keeper (their 2nd choice), didn't do himself much credit on that goal - I felt he could have come out a little further/faster. Either way, a goal is a goal and let's not take anything away from how well Vela took his.
Now, back to Cesc being scary and scary:
First scary - He was probably only putting in about 80% and to still manage to run the midfield like he did and produce 3 assists is nothing short of spectacular. He wasn't really fully of running but you can see his determination with his more physical display shrugging off the opposition when challenged (cleanly, for a change) for the ball. Imagine he put in 100%?
Second scary - He had the demeanour of someone who's putting in a final season just to give it one more go. I think his body language showed that his heart is no longer at Ashburton Grove. Be prepared for life after Cesc. We'll survive, but it'd break my heart to see my boy leave. Either way, I can't begrudge him for wanting more than what some of his team mates at Arsenal look bothered to give him.
Anyway, 3pts against that cunt kevin davies is always satisfying. Next up, our CL opener and I don't think they'll be as cavalier with their defending. Prepare to see them park the bus...
Wenger started off this match with a "weakened" side, perhaps enforced due to our usual recent glut of injuries. No Vermaelen was a telling change and I feared the new boy Squillaci wasn't ready yet for the big time with fellow new-comer Koscielny. It would be too soon to pair them in the middle of defence.
Luckily though, bolton are barely a footballing side and luckier still, this turned out to be the Cesc Fabregas show. What an inspiration. And the boy wasn't even at 100%. It's scary and scary but more on that later.
Firstly let's talk about what he DID do which is run the show in midfield and make 3 assists out of the 4 goals scored. He showed more hunger and determination to win than anyone else on the pitch in Red and White.
Andrei Arshavin was the biggest waster of them all....put through by Cesc on numerous occasions in one-on-one situations, he repeatedly fluffed his lines. That's the kind of thing that will destroy all the hard work, morale and untimately, the season. He's got to shape up or ship out. I'm all for selling him and using the money to buy another midfielder who actually gives a crap.
Jack Wilshere started and made a telling contribution when he crossed into the box for Cesc to knock down the pass for Laurent Koscielny to bundle across the line for Arsenal's first goal. Other than that, the young Englishman was mostly anonymous and went about doing his job without being outstanding. Not that it was a bad performance from him, but it wasn't the best we've seen him produce.
Tomas Rosicky did pretty well, also creating fantastic chances for Arshavin but the Russian kept getting caught offside, even if they were marginal calls.
bolton played a dangerously high defensive line against Arsenal and we could have done with Theo's pace, bursting through the middle from slightly deeper, but he's sadly out for a few more weeks after getting injured playing for england....all that just as he was showing great form with a bunch of goals.
Up front, Maroune Chamakh went about with his usual high work rate. I like this guy. He really works for the team. Although he hasn't scored many goals, his two, including the one he converted here from a Cesc cross, both came from headers. When was the last time we've seen that from someone in Red and White?
Alex Song chipped in, literally, with his own contribution up front. He received an Arshavin pass well and managed to dink one over the keeper in what looked a fantastic striker's goal. Besides that, he performed well as the shield in front of the back four.
As for the back four, eboue was back at his diving/play acting best going down several times. The less spoken about, the better.
Kieran Gibbs started at left back and put in a good show. He collected a yellow card for a slightly high tackle but I thought that was great. Something we've lacked in a while. Someone who's willing to go out there and put himself about - announce his presence a bit like that cunt kevin davies.
The little shite davies should have been sent off. He pulled a tackle from behind on Rosicky in the first half, and then, going unpunished, he continued his bullshit with a late one into Wilshere. The little shit. That earned him a yellow but he's never satisfied unless he's seriously hurt an Arsenal man. He proceeded to try and do just that in the second half with a heavy head butt into Koscielny that left the latter seeing stars. But credit to Koscielny as he picked himself up and went about doing his job reasonably well.
It was Koscielny who gifted bolton their equaliser in the first half with a weak defensive header. It looked like the team was about to crumble again as we've seen them do so spectacularly before against these types of opposition but thankfully it happened before half time so there was a chance for Wenger to talk to them and set them straight. Had that kind of goal gone in the second half with bolton pulling level, I'm sure the 3pts would've gone down the toilet as it seemed that only Cesc gave a fuck.
New boy Sebastien Squillaci went about his business with little incident which I consider a good thing. Nothing much else to say about that and neither is there much to say about Almunia's performance. Though he might have done a bit better for bolton's equaliser, I can't really blame him for it.
diaby came on for a bit, took a heavy challenge on his shin, and left. I'm not complaining too much though the tackle was typical of a fucked up side like bolton: Get the player first, ball doesn't matter. Of course the perpetrator never got punished for it. Wonderful refereeing considering the ref had only moments earlier sent off a bolton player for a tackle from behind on Chamakh which looked was less dangerous.
denilson came on to substitute the substitute diaby and put in his usual performance similarly to diaby - pass sideways or backwards and if passing forward, only pass to cesc. Perhaps in this case that wasn't too bad because the team was already leading but in the instance you're chasing a game, people like diaby and denilson only add negativity to Arsenal's game.
Carlos Vela came on as a sub and contributed his bit. During his cameo, he seemed to put in a high work rate which I always like to see. Then, after Arsenal had strung 24 passes together, Cesc looks up with the ball at his feet and sees Vela's run. As only he can, Cesc lobs the ball exquisitely over the bolton defence to Vela who manages to show Arshavin what to do during a one-on-one situation with the keeper. I expected the Mexican to chip it over the keeper like he normally does but this time he chose to slot the ball well into the bottom left of the goal. It has to be said too that the bolton keeper (their 2nd choice), didn't do himself much credit on that goal - I felt he could have come out a little further/faster. Either way, a goal is a goal and let's not take anything away from how well Vela took his.
Now, back to Cesc being scary and scary:
First scary - He was probably only putting in about 80% and to still manage to run the midfield like he did and produce 3 assists is nothing short of spectacular. He wasn't really fully of running but you can see his determination with his more physical display shrugging off the opposition when challenged (cleanly, for a change) for the ball. Imagine he put in 100%?
Second scary - He had the demeanour of someone who's putting in a final season just to give it one more go. I think his body language showed that his heart is no longer at Ashburton Grove. Be prepared for life after Cesc. We'll survive, but it'd break my heart to see my boy leave. Either way, I can't begrudge him for wanting more than what some of his team mates at Arsenal look bothered to give him.
Anyway, 3pts against that cunt kevin davies is always satisfying. Next up, our CL opener and I don't think they'll be as cavalier with their defending. Prepare to see them park the bus...
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